Digital video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless broadcast systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, digital cameras, digital recording devices, digital media players, video gaming devices, video game consoles, cellular or satellite radio telephones, video teleconferencing devices, and the like. Digital video devices implement video compression techniques, such as those described in the standards defined by MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4, Part 10, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, and extensions of such standards. The video devices may transmit, receive, encode, decode, and/or store digital video information more efficiently by implementing such video coding techniques.
Video devices having video recording capabilities may be used to record video data so that the recorded video data can be viewed at a later time. When such video devices are recording video data, the video devices typically display a preview of the video data currently being recorded. For example, when a user activates the video recording function on his or her video device, the display screen/unit provided on the video device may display a preview of what the camera provided on the video device is currently recording, so that the user can ensure that the desired recording object is correctly positioned within the field of view of the camera. Thus, the video device may consume some of the available bandwidth and power available to the video device for generating and displaying the preview, and the bandwidth and power consumption may be proportional to the quality and/or size of the recorded video data.